Civic, Business and Real Estate Leaders Call on Legislative Leaders to Fund the Modernization of our Subways and Support a Program to Traffic Congestion in NYC

New York, NY -- Regional Plan Association (RPA), the well-established research, planning and advocacy organization focused on improving the Tri-State region’s prosperity, equity, health, and sustainability, is taking its recently released Fourth Regional Plan on the road. The organization is already conducting briefings on the plan for municipal, civic and business groups and now is heading to Albany on Tuesday to brief state legislators on the 61 recommendations contained in the Fourth Plan.

RPA’s board members and staff will also meet directly with legislators to discuss some of RPA’s priorities for the year ahead including the Fourth Plan’s recommendation to use tolling to create new revenue streams to fix and modernize the region’s infrastructure.

“After decades of under-investment, combined with record growth in use, New York’s transportation network is slowly grinding to a halt,” said Scott Rechler, Chair of Regional Plan Association board of directors. “As a result, today, we are facing a transportation crisis that affects all of us. In response, we need a comprehensive solution that creates a new sustainable source of revenue to modernize our aging infrastructure while simultaneously reducing the crippling congestion on our roads, bridges, and tunnels.”

“Our transit system is broken, and that’s not fair to the hardworking New Yorkers who depend on it get to work, school, the doctor,” said Tom Wright President of the Regional Plan Association. “We want legislators to understand that we desperately need new funding to support a 21st century transit system. We’re New York, we should have the biggest, best transit system in the world. We desperately need new, dedicated funding to get it done.”

Media Availability: Scott Rechler and Tom Wright will be available in person 2-2:30 pm in the Fishbowl for media, to set up a phone interview please contact [email protected].

About Regional Plan Association

Regional Plan Association is an independent, not-for-profit civic organization that develops and promotes ideas to improve the economic health, environmental resiliency and quality of life of the New York metropolitan area. We conduct research on transportation, land use, housing, good governance and the environment. We advise cities, communities and public agencies. And we advocate for change that will contribute to the prosperity of all residents of the region. Since the 1920s, RPA has produced four landmark plans for the region, the most recent was released in November 2017. For more information, please visit www.rpa.org or fourthplan.org.